Now Commenting On:

Notes: Sizable audience for Cook

Notes: Sizable audience for Cook

DENVER -- It was the most closely followed simulated game in Rockies history.

Before Monday night's Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, right-hander Aaron Cook, who hasn't pitched in a game since Aug. 10, threw a 45-pitch session.

Cook threw all his pitches at full speed. Various reserves faced him, but they didn't take their best swings. Overall, Cook reported accomplishing what he wanted -- keeping his sinker low in the strike zone, or missing beneath the strike zone.

The difference between this and other such exercises for pitchers returning from injury was the attention. Reporters and camera operators followed intently. General manager Dan O'Dowd and several other club officials watched closely.

Cook was pitching in hopes of attaining a spot on the World Series roster, provided the Rockies finish off the Diamondbacks. But he put the situation and the attention into perspective.

"What the guys are doing at [8 p.m. MT] is nerve racking," Cook said of NLCS Game 4. "This is just going out there and throwing my pitches."

Cook threw from the windup and the stretch. It isn't certain if he'd be activated, or whether he'll be used as a starter or a reliever.

"I'm just ready," Cook said. "I'm just getting my arm in shape. Whatever they possibly could use me for later, it's going to be their decision."

Holliday, celebrate: The Sporting News announced that Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday was chosen by fellow players to its All-National League Team. Also, Holliday will be honored on the field before Game 4 for earning the NL Player of the Month Award for September.

The Diamondbacks' Bob Melvin was chosen Manager of the Year.

Making Mile High history: Since the Denver Broncos began play in the American Football League in 1960, there has been a successful history of sports teams in the Mile High City. But nothing has been better than the 20-1 stretch the Rockies carried into Monday night, according to the University of Colorado sports information department.

In 1974-75, the American Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets had a 19-1 regular-season stretch, which was the best, previously. The Broncos went 18-1 in 1997-98, including the playoffs; the NBA's Nuggets had a 16-1 streak in 2004-05, and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche has a 12-1 run to its credit.

No script: Not to jump the gun, but the ninth inning of Monday night's broadcast on radio station KOA 850 AM will be called by Jeff Kingery, who has been in the booth for the Rockies' entire 15-season existence.

Kingery shares play-by-play duties with Jack Corrigan. If the game goes extra innings, Corrigan will call even-numbered innings and Kingery will call the odd ones.

Kingery said he has not scripted what he will say should the Rockies complete a four-game sweep and qualify for their first World Series.

"The moment will suggest what I say. It always has," Kingery said. "I think it's tough to plan out something in your head or even script it out. I have heard of people doing that, but I've always trusted my instincts in those situations.

"What happens if it's like a weird play to end a game, like a guy over-slides second base and he's tagged out [as the Diamondbacks' Miguel Montero did at the end of Game 1]? Or, how about the headfirst slide of Matt Holliday against the Padres in the Wild Card tiebreaker?

"You're looking to the [umpire] who makes the call 10 seconds after he slides in. You're waiting to say something, and you can't until he makes the call."

No getting away: Rockies manager Clint Hurdle says he keeps his cell phone turned off most of the day and concentrates on family activities to get away from baseball. But folks in his neighborhood aren't letting him completely escape.

"I can't get away from my cul-de-sac -- they won't let me," Hurdle said, laughing. "They had a string of balloons -- not quite what we had on the field last night, but not far short from that -- when I got up to go out. They had it strung at the break of dawn.

"The garbage men had to move it today to get the garbage truck through, because it sealed off the cul-de-sac, at the mouth of the cul-de-sac."

Thomas Harding is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.